A group of people thanked the gatekeeper and walked through the back door of the scrap metal recycling station. As expected of Harbin's largest scrap metal recycling station, the items collected in the backyard were extraordinary. A vast area was piled high with all sorts of scrap materials, truly piled up to the sky. At a glance, one could see all sorts of messy things, piled up randomly, emitting a foul odor.
Chen Lan thought to herself, fortunately, Harbin had few mosquitoes and flies. Most of the flies probably froze to death during winter. Of course, this was also related to Harbin people's emphasis on city hygiene. Otherwise, the thought of flies buzzing everywhere made Chen Lan's scalp tingle.
Chen Lan estimated that most of the piles of items on the ground had been collected not long ago. Perhaps they hadn't had time to sort them out before receiving other work tasks from the city, which was why they were all sent to the lower-level scrap metal recycling stations to inspect sanitary conditions.
Why did she say that? Because Chen Lan noticed that the items piled on the ground didn't have much dust on them. The reason for the stench was that it was summer, and the chicken feathers, goose feathers, animal bones, and other items collected hadn't been sorted and transported in time. These items easily decomposed and rotted, so a foul smell was unavoidable. Moreover, this was a scrap metal recycling station!
The group now had important business to attend to and couldn't bother with anything else. Besides, Chen Lan and the children grew up farming in the valley, and they applied farm manure to the crops every year. So, this smell was tolerable. However, Sister Zhao was finding it difficult to bear. She was seen frowning, covering her mouth and nose, and quickly walking directly towards the large warehouse pointed out by the gatekeeper.
Chen Lan deliberately walked at the very back of the group. Xu Mingxuan saw this and stopped, waiting for her. Chen Lan walked slowly while using her mind to activate the system's search function. On the system screen, Chen Lan originally wanted to type "gold," but then she thought that since the items had already arrived at the recycling station, the probability was too low. Finally, she decided to type "antiques," which should be safer, as the probability of a successful search would be much higher.
As expected, several small red dots appeared on the system screen. Looking at the specific locations of the red dots, Chen Lan already had an idea and planned to deal with it when they came out of the warehouse. So, she continued to follow everyone towards the large warehouse near the corner.
Sister Zhao used the key she brought to open the heavy lock on the large door. She pushed the creaking door open with both hands and was immediately choked by the dust falling from the door, causing her to sneeze repeatedly. Her eyes were also blurred by the dust and she couldn't open them. Sudannovel.com
So, Sister Zhao wiped her eyes with a handkerchief and said, "Comrade Xiao Chen, Comrade Xiao Xu, my nose can't stand the smell inside. You two go in and look. I won't go in. If you find anything useful, come out quickly. We can come back to look carefully when we have time tomorrow. I'll wait for you outside the main gate of the scrap metal recycling station." With that, she casually handed the key and lock to Chen Lan, who was walking behind her, and turned around, leaving without looking back.
Watching Sister Zhao's receding back, Chen Lan looked back at the wide-open warehouse. The large room was packed full. Old Man Zhang was the first to step inside. Seeing the damaged cabinets, tables, and carved four-poster beds everywhere, Old Man Zhang began to grumble again, "What a sin! Such good things were ruined like this."
He kept mumbling as he helped Chen Lan and her husband select furniture that was not too badly damaged and could still be used after repair. The three boys also came forward to help him move things. Jiahui was responsible for moving the old furniture he selected to the side. They divided their tasks clearly and started working energetically.
Chen Lan and Xu Mingxuan also hurried in behind the children. Chen Lan had no time to sigh here. She immediately used her mind to activate the system's search function. Chen Lan couldn't care less anymore and typed "antiques" and "gold" on the system screen, searching immediately. As expected, many small red dots appeared on the system screen. To test the accuracy this time, Chen Lan walked towards a dressing table in front of her that had a broken leg and was disfigured.
Looking at the prompt on the system screen, she reached out and pulled out the dressing table. Indeed, this dressing table was made of some kind of wood and was quite heavy, but Chen Lan was strong and didn't pay much attention to it.
Chen Lan opened all the small drawers but found nothing else. However, the red dots on the system screen were still there. Chen Lan carefully examined the drawers of the dressing table and found no hidden compartments, which was a bit strange.
So, she lowered her head and examined the dressing table carefully, and also lowered her head to look at the length of the drawers. Only then did she realize where the problem lay. The back of the dressing table was double-layered, no wonder it was so heavy!
Time was pressing, and Chen Lan couldn't take her time to dismantle the dressing table. Since Chen Lan was strong, she adopted a violent demolition method, directly prying apart the wooden pieces joined by mortise and tenon structure on the dressing table with her hands. Finally, she found what the previous owner had hidden. Opening the layers of oil paper that were tightly sealed, Chen Lan found a map and several large gold ingots, or more precisely, a treasure map.
Chen Lan froze there for a long time because she couldn't believe in the existence of treasure maps. She always felt that ancient people, having nothing better to do, deliberately created them to tease later generations. Was she also being teased by this unknown ancient person this time?
Xu Mingxuan had been watching Chen Lan fiddle around for a long time. He wasn't seeing his wife's good luck for the first time, so he wasn't too surprised to see several large gold ingots. Seeing her in a daze, he reached out and took the map from Chen Lan's hand. After a brief glance, he said, "Lan'er, let's put everything away first. It's getting late. We'll study it carefully later. We need to go out now. Comrade Zhao is waiting outside for us to pay the money at the housing authority. Let's not make things difficult for her."
Chen Lan felt that Xu Mingxuan was right. After all, Sister Zhao had helped them a lot, and they couldn't make things difficult for her. So, she nodded, put the treasure map and the several large gold ingots into the system warehouse, and then called out to Old Man Zhang and the children to go out together.